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Tag Archives: Rock&Roll

Fathers Can Be Hard to Raise

19 Sunday Jun 2022

Posted by danielwalldammit in Childhood

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bullshit, Deafness, Donald TM Wall, Father's Day, Guns, Happy Father's Day, Hearing, Military Service, Rock&Roll

Mom always said that Dad’s nose would turn inside out whenever he told a lie. She didn’t mean a terrible lie, the kind you’d feel really bad about; she meant the kind of bullshit people sling around at their loved ones in the course of a regular day. Note quite a white lie, but not a serious deception either. That’s the kind of lie Mom was talking about, and yes, she was right. When Dad did that, you’d swear his nose was trying to turn inside out.

That’s one thing I remember about Dad.

***

Here is another!

It was often hard to get his attention. If he was watching television, for example, you could chatter away and he didn’t hear a word you said. You could ask him a question, tell him something, even something important, or otherwise make an effort to get his attention, all in vain. Short of shouting at the man, he simply didn’t hear you.

Yes, it could be damned frustrating!

Mom and Dad always said this was on account of Dad’s years as a helicopter pilot in the early air-ambulance operations of the military. He had also experienced plenty of other loud noises in the military, including at least one very loud noise (complements of the North Koreans) that would have killed him had he not tripped and fell flat on his face at just the right moment just a moment before it went off. In any event, Dad had heard a lot of loud noises back in the military, and this had left him with hearing loss, so if he wasn’t focused on you, he just didn’t hear what you had to say.

I grew up knowing this.

It was annoying, being ignored like that, but that was the cost of Dad’s service to his country.

Mostly on account of the helicopters.

***

In time, I came to experience hearing loss of my own. It set in at around 22 or 23 along with a nasty dose of tinnitus. I don’t think I slept for about 6 months. The ringing in my ears just wouldn’t let me sleep.

The hearing loss itself was all kinds of disorienting. I remember that I could no longer orient toward a sound. If someone called me from the left, I would turn to my right and wonder where the Hell they were? In a crowded room, I could no longer tune other people out to focus on the person I was talking to. (I still find that impossible.) Also, I got a quick lesson in how much I relied on my hearing during day to day activities. Once I began to cross the street and got a honk from an oncoming car behind me. That’s when I realized I was using the silence in place of actually looking to see if the street was clear, which was about as far from smart as it could possibly have been. I didn’t even realize I had been doing this until it was no longer an option.

In the years since, I have come to live with all these problems, all without an aid. Mostly, things re okay now. I keep some noise going at almost all times, but the tinnitus doesn’t bother me so much anymore. I just don’t notice it. I can hear most things that I need to. It’s a problem when my students are shy and don’t speak up; otherwise, my hearing loss doesn’t affect my classroom. My fiancé gets tired of repeating herself, but that’s not the worst of her frustrations with me. (She’ll live!) I reckon, some day I will get the aid, but for now, I am fine,

The story of my hearing loss is nowhere near as interesting as that of my Dad. The truth is, I don’t exactly know what did it. It might be a particular guitar note from Toni Iomi on the Black Sabbath “Born Again” tour (which is incidentally the inspiration for the Stonehenge sequence in Spinal Tap). I always wore ear protection to concerts, but not that evening. I’m not sure why, but I decided to rawdog the sounds that night only to find Iomi’s guitar impossibly loud and high pitched. Still, I was enjoying the show when he hit one particular note that filled me with pain all the way to my toes. That might have done it! Still, that had been a few years before my hearing loss set in. More recently, I had been listening to Jimi Hendrix on earphones. That might have done it. Or perhaps it was all the shooting I did as a kid, all without hearing protection, at least until I joined a gun club, only to begin assaulting my ears once again with heavy met in my freshman year of high school. I really just don’t know how much any one of these could have contributed to my hearing loss. Any or all of these are good candidates for an explanation.

I also know that my own story of hearing loss doesn’t hold a candle to my Dad’s. My stories are stories of self-indulgence. His are stories of service to his country.

My sister made that pillow

In any event, it was Dad who took me to get my hearing checked. I had aged out of coverage on his own military insurance the year before, but none of us knew it at the time. We thought that was how we would pay for the inevitable hearing aid. At the time, I really couldn’t imagine going forward without some help, so off to the hearing doctors I went.

The technician at the testing center didn’t tell me much, except that I had lost some hearing in my left ear. I was to take this information back to my doctor who would decide where to go from there.

On a lark, my Dad decided to take the test himself. He came back fine. Had the hearing of a young man or so the technician described it.

It wasn’t until hours later, that it finally dawned on me.

“He Dad, didn’t you used to say that your hearing had been damaged from your years as a helicopter pilot? Back when you used to ignore us while watching television? You always said it was because you couldn’t hear us.”

Dad didn’t say a word.

But his nose turned totally inside out.

“Asshole!”

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Nothing to See Here, Just a Middle-Aged Guy Bitching About Kids These Days and their Damned Music!

03 Sunday May 2015

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Grumpy Old Guy, Justin Bieber, Music, Pop Culture, Pop Music, Rebellion, Rock Music, Rock&Roll, Teen-Agers

Dio_EvilEye

See kids, this is how you scare the old folks. …at least it worked for awhile.

Kids these days are so Goddamn normal. Their music doesn’t even bother me.

Back in my day we used to walk six miles, barefoot through rain sleet, or snow, just to piss our parents off. Granted, long hair was getting a little old by the time I met my inner rebellion, but we had Satan in our games and all over our music. Apparently, the horned one couldn’t fiddle, but he sure helped Dio lay down some Heavy Metal word salad worthy of an eternity in the always-lit-coal mine. So what the Hell was a Holy Diver anyway? I didn’t know, my Mom didn’t know, and frankly, I doubt Dio knew. If you played it backwards, the guy probably just toweled off or something.

…but in a bad way.

So, what do you kids do to piss my generation off?

Bieber.

Bieberositide is not even worth being mad at. Oh sure, the boy causes trouble, and Miley Cyrus almost did something racy once or thrice. Some folks enjoyed being mad at her for awhile. I recall Britney spears kissed Madonna once, and a few people may even have humored them by pretending to be offended, but seriously? That’s all ya got? It’s a tired script boys and girls, and it has about as much kick as well-watered American beer. Plus, these antics have fuck-all to do with music, or performance, or really anything but marketing strategies.

I for one am neither shocked, nor offended by much in contemporary music, and I haven’t been for sometime. I’m old, I’m cranky, and I’m white. I’m exactly the sort of person pop music is supposed to piss off, and I can’t think of anything recent that’s worth a bug-eyed angry moment.

Damned kids!

We bought a better brand of rebellion than you can find in the stores now. It almost seemed authentic at times, or at least it had pedigree. Hell, even Ozzy loved the Beatles, and they were into love and revolution or something. One could even find the traces of war protest songs in the nooks and crannies of the world of hard rock. Eighties-era politics might have lacked the earnestness of folk music protest or the urgency of The Vietnam Era tunes, but hints and allusions could be found. That may not be much, but it’s better than the brats can manage today, that’s for damned sure.

And then of course there was the actual music! Would you believe some musicians actually discussed music during interviews? It’s almost as if the music itself was an important part of being a musician!

The professionally cool today only seem to talk about their lust lives, or maybe that’s all some people ask them about. It’s all so very underwhelming.

As a young kid, I used to wonder what future generations would do to carry the musical torch into the faces of older generations. between Punk Rock and Heavy Metal, I didn’t see how volume and raunch could go much further without putting people in the hospital. Rap was a curve ball in my world, and I never have quite wrapped my lily-white mind around it, but even that’s calmed down lately, so it seems. So, what are the youth doing to piss off old people now?

Listening to pop radio these days, I think I finally have my answer. Today’s youth are going to bore us to death.

Fricking kids. Your music is boring.

Also, get off my lawn!

(I don’t have a lawn, but get off it anyway. Damned kids!)

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An Uncommon Elf

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Uncommonday

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Black Sabbath, Carolina County Ball, Elf, Music, Rainbow, Rock&Roll, Ronnie James Dio, The Electric Elves

Wondering who this is? Well it’s Ronnie James Dio and his old band.

…no his REALLY old band.

This was Dio before Black Sabbath, before Rainbow, and well before Satan made his way into the man’s vocals. Heck, the lyrics seem almost normal, even wholesome.

I don’t imagine he would have flashed the hook of horns much during these years.

Nope!

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Moby Dick Reimagined with 20% More Recursion

15 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Re-Creations

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Cover Tunes, Dread Zeppelin, Dums, Elvis, Led Zeppelin, Moby Dick, Music, Parody, Rock&Roll

I have fond memories of Zeppelin, the dreaded version of course. Don’t worry I love the leaded version of zeppelin too, but there is something about an Elvis impersonator belting out Robert Plants lyrics to a slightly more rhythmic version of the standard Zep. tunes, …it was hilarious and beautiful at the same time. I’m talking about Dread Zeppelin of course. If you don’t know what I’m talking about the, not even Jah can save you.

I saw these guys at a New Year’s performance at Calamity Jane’s in Las Vegas many many years back. They put on a Hell of a show, and yes I still inflict their tunes on my friends whenever I get a chance. I always thought the most brilliant thing they ever did was this little gem  For those insufficiently familiar with the original Zeppelin canon (shame on you again!), the name of the tune is of course, Moby Dick.

…a fact that has had me laughing for about 2 decades now.

(Oh yeah, here’s the original)

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Hey Geezer, What Rhymes With Masses?

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Re-Creations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Black Masses, Black Sabbath, Cover Tunes, Dresden Dolls, Hayseed Dixie, Music, Rock&Roll, The Suck, War Pigs

“Hey Geezer, what rhymes with masses?”

My friend, Mike, likes to make fun of the lyrics. I laugh, because It’s a fair cop. That doesn’t stop me from loving this song. It’s crude, and it’s angry, and frankly, I think that suits its subject rather well. When one thinks of war protest songs, Heavy Metal isn’t normally the genre that comes to mind, but perhaps this is one well-earned exception. Hell, I even like the cheated rhyme!

In fact this song has four places on my favorites play-list rather than one, because there are a few non-Sabbath versions of War Pigs that are well worth a listen. The Suck doesn’t add too much to the composition, but this apartheid era rock band seems so out-of-place in South Africa, they get triple credit for simply thinking of recording the song. Hayseed Dixie is of course funny as Hell, but I think they are as sincere about it’s message as anybody. Check out their remake of  Holiday to hear these rednecks take sarcasm and bitterness right to 11. The most creative reworking of War Pigs may come from the Dresden Dolls. Theirs may also be the most earnest. Unfortunately, I don’t think they ever recorded it in a studio; one has only a few live bootlegs to choose from. The version below is the best I can find.

***

Postscript: Since writing this, I have discovered a couple new versions of this song; Brownout and Brass Against.

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Uncommonday Morning Blues – Ian Anderson Learns to Play the Flute

30 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Uncommonday

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Classic Rock, Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull, Music, Progressive Rock, Rock&Roll, Self-Taught, The Flute

jethro%20tull-5The hey-day for Jethro Tull would have to be the 1970s, though I always thought they got a lot more airplay after the classic rock stations began to form in the late 80s. They sort of peaked as an active band, and then peaked again with a trace of nostalgia a few years on down the road, not that they’ve ever stopped touring. It just seems that their biggest hits really took off a little after the fact.

Back in the early 80s when I was in high school, most of my classmates had no idea who these guys were. The only people that did know about Tull seemed to be the metal-heads, which was a little odd, because Jethro Tull was hardly a metal band. They had one album that could be called hard rock, and that was Aqualung, but the rest was hard to classify. Today folks tend to call it ‘prog rock’. In any event, for those that do know about them, Jethro Tull has always been known for one thing, the way that front man, Ian Anderson, played the flute. The flute is more than a little unusual for a rock band of any sub-genre. Oh sure, folks may add it to a tune here and there, but to have a band incorporate it as a standard instrument throughout their entire body of work. Well that was weird. The instrument absolutely defined the band. In any event, I’ve been a well-hooked fan ever since first hearing my older sister’s 8-track of Songs from the Wood.

…which is why I found this story to be so damned interesting. You see, in this interview (and a few others), Ian Anderson explains how he learned the proper fingering technique for playing the flute.

…in 1991.

And a little sample…

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One Way Out – Twice!

28 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Re-Creations

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Allmon Brothers, Blues, Music, One Way out, Rock, Rock&Roll, Sonny Boy Williamson

I’ve always loved this particular tune. I grew up listening to the Allman Brothers version, and count it as one of my favorites. Like a lot of great rock&roll tunes, though, it has an interesting past. You see, it isn’t just that the old rock bands were inspired by blues. Some of their greatest hits were cover tunes. According to the almighty wiki, this was first recorded by Elmore James who didn’t release it for several years. Later Sonny Boy Williamson put out a couple different versions. I think my own favorite would be the Williamson version with Buddy Guy on guitar.

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A Little Monday Sermon Called, ‘Bales of Cocaine’

16 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Uncommonday

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bales of Cocaine, Cocaine, Jim Heath, Music, Rock&Roll, Rockabilly, Texas, The Reverend Horton Heat

What the Hell is a Rockabilly band doing claiming the Cramps as a major influence, opening for Ministry, and working with Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers? None of these things would seem to add up to that 1950s nostalgia that always comes to mind when I hear the word ‘rockabilly’. And in the case of the Reverend Horton Heat, they really don’t. No, this band is its own kind of monster, and I love them for it. Their work often goes to 11, but for this Monday, let’s just take a minute to listen to  this wholesome-sounding tribute to a bit of Texas folklore.

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Uncommonday: Great Show, but Who is the Drummer?

04 Monday Nov 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music, Uncommonday

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Impromptu Performance, Pete Townsend, Quadraphenia, Rock&Roll, San Francisco, Scot Halpin, The who

Scot+Halpin“Can anybody play the drums? Can anybody play the drums? I mean somebody good.”

These aren’t the words one would expect to hear at a major rock concert, but that is exactly what Pete Townsend asked the crowd at The Cow Palace in San Francisco on November 20th, 1973.

It was the opening date for the start of the Quadraphenia tour, which is to say that this was one of the biggest bands out there at the peak of their popularity. Drummer Keith Moon had just passed out for the second time that evening, and apparently there was no reviving him. So, in what has to be one of the greatest rock&roll moments in all of history, Townsend turned to the audience and asked for a volunteer. What they got was Scot Halpin, a recent high school graduate who hadn’t played the drums in a year.

Halpin played three songs with The Who that night and closed the show.

(Short version, skips the songs)

(Full Concert)

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A Rambling Little Bit About Rock Lyrics

13 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by danielwalldammit in Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

American Horse, Beelz, Commercials, No More Tears, Ozzie Osbourne, Rock&Roll, Satan, The Cult, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Warrant

MV5BNzk3OTYyMzc2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk3NTUyMg@@._V1._SY314_CR27,0,214,314_So, I’m tooling around Vegas a couple weeks back, listening to Ozzy’s Boneyard when I hear this story about the origin of No More Tears. Apparently, Ozzy was in the bathtub, so the story goes, when inspiration struck.

I’d always wondered about that.

It’s just a little disappointing, isn’t it? I mean, this is hard rock and metal. All this time, I thought the Devil himself was supposed to be speaking to us through Ozzy. Is he using commercial jingles for a translator? I suppose that could be, right? Perhaps his evil word is too much for the ears of a professional musician, so maybe the Dark Lord has to find a truly evil minion to convey his word to the chosen spokes-stars. When he wants to reach the masses he turns to rock-stars; when he wants to reach rock-stars, Satan turns to advertisers.

…which actually makes sense to me.

19101819-5431-28That aside, you have to wonder if the folks from Warrant ever realized why the phrase “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” resonated with them. Seriously, I can just imagine it. They are sitting their, doing what rockers do when they write lyrics (and seriously, whatever the procedure is, I hope it’s truly depraved), and they are trying to write a song about a brutal murder out in the boonies, and suddenly somebody comes up with this reference to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Does everyone just think it has a nice ring to it?

Or better yet, maybe they knew what the were doing all along! Was that song a stealth history lesson, guys? Subliminal edumacation comin’ through your radio. Cause that would be awesome if it were true.

By ‘awesome’ I might mean ‘awful’.

Really, I’m not sure which.

Speaking of Rockin’ History lessons that almost happened, I can only assume Ian Astbury was well aware of the fact that there really was an American Horse. Given his own love of indigenous themes, I’d guess he was thinking about that very person when he wrote the song American Horse. At the very least, I imagine he was thinking about the old Lakota leader when inspiration for that tune began to take form, but of course “American Horse” isn’t actually about American Horse, at least I don’t think so.

…which come to think of it is probably just as well.

Gosh, Old Nick sure does work in mysterious ways:

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